Ohio Judge Accused of Running ‘Debtors’ Prison’ Faces Discipline

A longtime Ohio judge who “created a modern-day debtors’ prison” when presiding over misdemeanor cases should be removed from the bench and have his law license suspended, disciplinary authorities told the state Supreme Court.

Stow Municipal Court Judge Kim Hoover treated the impoverished people who appeared before him as a burden, demeaning and ridiculing them and sometimes making statements with racial overtones, Ohio Disciplinary Counsel Joseph M. Caligiuri said during arguments Wednesday. He added that Hoover “has made a mockery of the judiciary.”

“This is a judge that in each of these cases has basically created a modern-day debtors’ prison by extorting payment from the most vulnerable people among us: the poor, the mentally ill, and the drug dependent,” Caligiuri said during his oral argument. “He took these people’s last pennies when he knew that they could not afford to do so without any regard for their due process rights.”

Hoover’s attorney George D. Jonson of Montgomery Jonson LLP told the justices that his client didn’t act with bias against disadvantaged people. Rather, his actions were to fulfill the mandates for state sentencing laws, which include protecting the public and punishing the guilty.

“So [the board] found that he acted with bias and prejudice against poor people, but they credit his testimony that that his sentencing is about punishing the offender,” Jonson said. “It’s about righting their conduct.”

Hoover, whose courtroom is in suburban Akron, has been a municipal court judge since 1995. The Office of Disciplinary Counsel filed its complaint in 2021.

The state Board of Professional Conduct said in a report filed in February that Hoover committed 64 violations in cases involving 16 defendants. In each he either threatened to or followed through on doling out jail time to force defendants to pay fines and court fees, even though Ohio law doesn’t allow judges to use criminal sanctions to force payment.

In one instance, Hoover had a man held in jail for seven days even though he hadn’t paid a $100 fine and court costs. The man should have served two days at most because defendants are supposed to be credited $50 a day for unpaid fines, according to the board.

The board wrote that “this case is about money” and noted the disciplinary counsel’s argument that it was all in service of funding the Stow Municipal Court. It recommended a two-year suspension and removal from the bench without pay during that time.

Hoover, who admitted to two violations, said he should be given a one-year suspension, with six months of it stayed. The Ohio Supreme Court has final say.

Justice R. Patrick DeWine was curious what distinguished Hoover’s conduct from actions taken by judges across the state who alter sentences or end probation early if a defendant pays their costs and fines.

Justice Jennifer Brunner at one point zeroed in on a case, in which a defendant said he only had $45 on him. Hoover told him “to get on the phone with mom and dad and grandma and ask them for birthday presents early,” she recalled.

“Is that what a judicial officer, is that what they should be portraying in a courtroom?” she asked.

The case is Disciplinary Counsel v. Hoover, Ohio, No. 2023-0188, oral argument 5/17/23.